as commented elsewhere, about the only thing that would make me feel better about this trade would be if i read a bunch of enraged texas fans spewing vitriol about how terrible the trade was and how their management is big incompetent all-around jerkfaces. mostly it seems to be white sox fans doing that, however, while the rangers fans are like “dammit, i liked denks! but at least we got mccarthy, so i guess i’m good with it.” this does not make me feel grateful that kenny williams could not spend his christmas weekend drinking eggnog and watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer like the rest of us. mostly it makes me want to hit him over the head with a really thick slab of english toffee.

and also, you know. i really feel that if they were going to trade one of the most eagerly anticipated players on the 2007 team away, they should have, oh i don’t know, gotten someone we could definitely use immediately (as opposed to someone they’re going to make try out at spring training for a starting spot, so it’s not even guaranteed he’ll be any use to us), like, saaaaay… a left-fielder? you know, something we were missing more than we were missing more prospects? crazy talk, i know. sheer madness. maybe kenny should enter into talks with the chicago fire because i honestly think we need a talented goalkeeper more than we need another minor league pitcher. you could put him down right in front of the bullpen fence; not like anyone else is working out there. [0]

and, if javy sucks again next year, there will be no end to my ire. just so you know.

also, as a side note, this is the sort of thing that makes me consider my approach (purely emotional) far more wise than the stats hounds:

Stuff = EqK9 * 6 - 1.333 * (EqERA + PERA) - 3 * EqBB9 - 5 * EqHR9 -3 * MAX{6-IP/G),0}

i mean, dude. you can come up with a complex formula that involves two different sorts of statistically-normalized ERA in the calculations, but you cannot come up with a better name than “stuff”? you funny, silly little people!

—

0 – okay, i admit that i may be being a little hard on scotty. it’s true that my love is a fickle thing. but, see, he went from brilliant to average, and it made me cranky and bitter. (actually there were a lot of things that made me cranky and bitter last year. about the only people who escaped my wrath last season were jermaine and joe. well, and jim, too. yes, much crankiness abounded. crankiness was simply everywhere.) he’s not all bad. he just, you know, he got kidnapped by the same aliens who came down and replaced buehrle with a clone. actually, you know. alien kidnappings explains a lot about the 2006 white sox. perhaps that is why the pale hose seven are in outer space: they have gone to retrieve their people from the farthest reaches of space.